APTS. 
329 
of the bee parasites of the solitary kinds; and where they 
cannot individually avert it, they obtain collateral aid 
from others of their staff. The next class is the atten¬ 
dants upon the queen : these vary in number from twelve 
to twenty ; they invariably accompany her wherever she 
proceeds throughout the hive, for the purpose of laying 
her eggs; and whether their custom gave rise to the 
etiquette which attends human royalty, that a subject 
may never turn the back upon the sovereign, these at¬ 
tendant bees surround her with the head always turned 
towards her, and seem to caress her with their antennae 
and pay her every kind of deferential homage, those in 
front moving backwards as she advances, and those on 
each side, laterally, so that they ever face her; and as 
they tire others succeed them in their duties. Another 
set fulfil the office of keeping the hive thoroughly clean, 
for the transit of such large numbers will inevitably 
collect occasional dirt, as will the drift of the wind at the 
entrance of the hive and the action of the ventilators 
themselves. Their duty it is also to remove any extra¬ 
neous organic body that has forcibly entered and which 
may have succumbed to the vindictiveness of the bees. 
Where they are not strong enough, even collectively, to 
effect the removal, as in the case of a mouse or anything 
else as large or larger, they then call to their aid the 
wax workers and the repairers; these enclose the ob¬ 
noxious body, which they have the judgment to know 
will become dangerous from putrefaction, to aid in its 
prevention, by a cerement of wax or propolis, which pre¬ 
vents any offensive exhalation, and thus secures the 
wholesomeness of the hive. 
Here is completed, with the enumeration of those 
which successively repose from their toil, the several 
labours of the community which inhabits the hive. 
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